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Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Review -- The Balm Mont Balm Eyeshadow Palette

I have been absolutely obsessed with wine, burgundy, and/or cranberry eye shadow lately.

It makes sense, I suppose, because those kinds of rich, dark red shades scream fall and winter, and I really like the way the warm tones contrast with my blue eyes.

Whatever the reason, I've been using them like crazy so when I saw that The Balm had a new quad at Kohl's that features a gorgeous cranberry shade, I had to pick it up.

(Of course, it's The Balm, so I likely would have picked it up regardless of the color selection but ...)

The Balm's Mont Balm Eyeshadow Palette is an adorable ski-themed quad with the usual fun, retro artwork on the packaging.

The palette is made of cardboard, like all of The Balm's palettes, and has a small mirror on the inside that's totally usable if you're in a pinch.

The Balm Mont Balm Palette

The four shades in the palette are: Zermatt, a blackened navy with fine silver and green micro-glitter; Aspen, a muted cranberry with fine silver micro-glitter; Whistler, a shimmery silver-y, purple-y taupe; and Cortina, a matte cream.

The Balm Mont Balm Palette

The Balm Mont Balm Palette

Like all of The Balm's shadows, these are richly pigmented, creamy, and easy to work with. Just the other day I was talking about the Make Up For Ever shadows and long they last, but I find that to be the case with The Balm's shadows too -- they just hold up better over the course of a day than other shadows in my collection.

(In the interest of full disclosure, there's always some point during my day where -- intentionally or not -- I wind up taking at least a 20 minute nap, and when I'm wearing The Balm's shadows, I always wake up with my eye makeup totally intact.)

While I purchased the palette primarily because of Aspen, the cranberry shade, my favorite shadow in the quad may actually be Whistler. It's just such a pretty brightening shade for the lid, and while it doesn't scream fall/winter to me, it becomes cold weather ready in a hurry when I dust Aspen through the crease. I add a little Zermatt in the outer corner to darken it up and it's the perfect soft, still-kind-of-smoky eye for day or night.

I've been wearing it a ton lately.

And it's only $15 so the price isn't too steep either.

The only bad news is that it appears to be exclusive to Kohl's. You can purchase it online, but Kohl's doesn't ship internationally so if you're outside the U.S., you might be out of luck.

If you can get your hands on it and you like the shades, I definitely recommend picking it up.

What do you think of The Balm's Mont Balm Eyeshadow Palette? What's been your favorite quad lately?